Seeing Through Maps:

The Power of Images to Shape Our World View

by Ward L. Kaiser & Denis Wood
ODT Inc., Amherst, MA ($19.95)
1-800-736-1293

Chapter One: The Multiple Truths

of the Mappable World
Two People, Two Feet Apart
What is the truth? It seems so simple. But when we try
to put it into words, it turns out to be much more complex.
Our dictionary says that truth is: Conformity to
knowledge, fact, actuality, or logic. That seems to help
until we try to say what knowledge is. Or facts.
Truth is most commonly used to mean correspondence
with facts or with what actually occurred, our dictionary
goes on. But when the police officer asks, What
happened? at the scene of even the simplest fenderbender, the officer never hears just one story. If facts were
straightforward we wouldnt need juries to determine
them.
The truth can seem awfully slippery at times.
At other times good sense rebels. Of course the truth
exists! We did have lunch last Thursday. It is a simple
fact.
But is it?
We did have lunch last Thursday.
Of course we sat in different chairs and these were sort
of angled to the table. Because of this one of us looked at

the other against a background of geraniums in coffee cans

and birds at a feeder in the dogwood tree; the other against
a background of the house next door and thunderhead
clouds in the summer sky above it.
What at first appears to be one thing the two of us
having lunch dissolves into two different scenes. Even
at a single moment in the meal different things are going
on. Sometimes they are so different we can see the other
persons eyes have drifted from the table. Ward has moved
with his eyes to something going on in the tree behind
Denis, or Denis has moved with his eyes to something
going on in the driveway behind Ward. Then we have to
reorient ourselves to the reality of the other by turning our
chairs to more squarely face each other.
Sometimes one of us sees something the other misses
completely, a bird at the feeder (and by the time the other
turns it is gone); or a kid doing something on a skateboard
(and the other turns, but he is too late). Then one persons
experience of lunch includes that event. The others
doesnt.
These differences in the experience of lunch result from
no more than a foot or two between our chairs and a
o
difference in orientation of maybe 90 . We can add to this
our different backgrounds, our different professions, different styles of thinking, and all the rest of it. Then, despite
everything we share, even of this simple meal it becomes

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

hard to say that this was that, and that was this. This is true
even in the moment, much less in the mind, or in the
memory a day, a week, a month or longer later.
But, damnit! We did have lunch together.
Sure, okay, if thats all you want to say: we had lunch.
There may be something we can call the truth if we keep
it so simple it doesnt matter.
Two Peoples, a World Apart
Two people, two feet apart. What if theyd been two
peoples a world apart? What if theyd been inhabitants of
New York and Beijing contemplating the U.S. bombing of
the Chinese embassy in Belgrade?
If all we can say of the truth is that bombs fell on a
building we might as well say nothing. Because it is not
about that. Thats ... past. It is about now and tomorrow. It
is about who will apologize (if anyone) to whom? It is about
what was really going on, and if this were a sign what it is a
sign of, and is it reasonable to have bombs? It is about what
life means if it can end this way. It is about stuff like that.
Its hot out here, one says.
It sure is, says the other.
Its this here global warming, says the first, too many
cars.
Bullshit, says the second.
It was easy to agree about it being hot, but attributing the heat to the cars implies a course of corrective
action. That raises the stakes. Suddenly it is a matter of
perception. Is it really hotter than it used to be? Or is
this a perspective effect? If it is hotter, is this usual or
unusual. If unusual, did people cause it? If we did, what
can we do about it?

You might ask, Well, what about someone across the

street watching the two of you having lunch? Wouldnt
they have an objective view? What about the UN
perspective on the bombing? What does science have to say
about global warming?
And, yes, each has its truth too, but there are three
truths now instead of two. Three truths ... or more. The
UN scarcely speaks in a single voice, and in the case of
science speaking about global warming were talking about
dozens and dozens of truths.
How many can we stand?
How do we act if we dont know whats true? Isnt life
hard enough already without adding to it the uncertainty
of there being many truths or maybe even none at all?
Frankly, life is hard enough already without pretending
it is only one true thing.

We were lost. A security guard at Duke University in Durham, North

Carolina, drew this map of the best way to get from Duke to Angier Avenue.
(1993).

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

true. The guard could have been irritated by our presence

and drawn a map intended to mislead us. (People have
What does this have to do with maps?
been known to do such things.) Or the guard could
Maps are descriptions of the way things are. They are a
simply have been mistaken about which street went
lot like the answers people
where.
give police at the scene of
Is his map complete? It is
an accident. Questions of
complete enough. It is not a
truth are never far away.
complete map of Durham.
We ask the same things
It is not even a complete
about maps we ask about
map of Durham streets. But
any description. How
it included everything we
true? How complete? How
needed to get from Duke to
accurate? How precise?
Angier Avenue.
The answers depend on
How accurate is it?
our purposes, what we need
Again, it is accurate
the description for.
enough. As a matter of fact,
On page two is a map a
Angier Avenue doesnt T
guard made to show us how
into Ellis Road. It crosses it.
to
get
from
Duke
But this didnt matter if we
University, in Durham,
were following the map.
North Carolina, to an auto
Is it precise? Not very.
repair shop on Angier
On one part of the map an
Avenue. It brings instituinch equals a couple of
This is a modern outline reconstruction of the 1569 map on which Gerardus
tions (Duke, Durham Tech), Mercator introduced his famous projection. Notice the way the rectangles hundred yards. On another
roads (NC 147, Briggs forming the grid get longer and longer as you move toward the North and it equals a couple of miles.
Avenue), and
landmarks South Poles. A redrawn version of his actual map is on the next page.
But again, it was precise
(a bridge, the railroad
enough!
tracks) together to form a sequence of instructions: Get
The guards map perfectly fulfilled its purpose. It was
off 147 at the Briggs Avenue exit just past Durham Tech,
perfect. The guard managed this by selecting from
is what the map says, And where Briggs dead ends, turn
everything he knew about Durham only what was
right ...
necessary to his purpose: to guide us where we wanted
Is it true? As a matter of fact it got us exactly where we
to go.
wanted to go, so it was true enough. It need not have been
Maps Are Descriptions Too

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

them world maps), this is no more a map of the world

than the guards was a map of Durham.
All Maps Are Selective
This isnt obvious at all.
But first, how else to call such a map? No other name is
Every map is a purposeful selection from everything that is
quite as convenient, and everyone calls it a world map, so
known, bent to the mapmakwe will too. But, as we do,
ers ends. Every map serves a
were going to keep in mind
purpose. Every map advances
that a great deal is missing.
an interest.
Often whats missing is a clue
This is easy to see in a
to the purpose the map is servmap like the one we have
ing.
been looking at which was
In this case, both of the
drawn with the special purearths poles are missing. A
pose of helping us visualize
lot of Antarctica is missing
instructions: Its kind of
too. So are all signs of relief:
complicated, the guard had
there are no mountains,
said as he put pen to paper.
valleys or plains, neither on
It is not so easy to see the
the land nor beneath the sea.
purpose in an ordinary map
There is no atmosphere
of the world like our next
either. Certainly there are no
example.
clouds. For that matter there
This is a redrawing of the map Gerhardus Mercator published in 1569 to preA world map like this sent his new projection. The original is too hard to reproduce. The title reads, is no sign of life, neither vegseems to have no purpose. in English, A New and Enlarged Description of the Earth With Corrections etable nor animal. There is
Or it seems to be ready to for Use in Navigation. Its intended use could not be more clearly spelled out. no sign of humans either, no
serve any purpose you might
countries, no Cairo, New
bring to it. For this reason such maps are often called
York or Mexico City, no Great Wall of China.
general purpose maps in an effort to differentiate them
It is hardly, in other words, the world. So what is it?
from special purpose maps like the one the guard drew.
At first thought it may seem to be a map of land and
But as we will see, there are no general purpose maps.
water. But when you think about it, too much water lies on
Every map serves a specific purpose. Every map
the land for this to be a map of water. There are literally
advances an interest.
tons of water, for instance, in the ice that lies over
We should have put world map in quotation marks.
Antarctica and Greenland. There are tons of water in the
Though this is how we talk about maps like this (we call
atmosphere too. So it is not a map of land and water. It has

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

to be about something else.

As with the truth, it seems simple. But when you try to
put it into words, it turns out to be hard. In fact, the map
is not at all what it seems. Even in its up-dated form (see
page 6) the map is actually still a piece of history. It
reminds us that when it was made, people crossed oceans
in sailing ships. A good description of this maps subject
would be, Places where ships will float and places where
they wont. This still isnt quite right. Even modern icebreakers get stuck in the solid ice of the Arctic Ocean.
Sailing ships never got into that ice at all.
All Maps Have a Purpose
But the sailable world is what this map is paying
attention to. It is a map for a world of sailors. It should
not surprise us, then, that the way the map shows the
world should reflect the interests of sailors too. The maps
on pages 3 and 6 are modern versions of one Gerhardus
Mercator made in 1569. He called his map, A New and
Enlarged Description of the Earth With Corrections for
Use in Navigation. His title was very precise about the
maps purpose, and right over North America he
engraved a long description of how he made it.
We will have much more to say about this map further
on. Whats important here, where were concerned with
the purposes maps serve, is what Mercators map was for.
The map made it possible for sailors to draw a straight line
to their destination and sail along it. This is because any
straight line drawn on Mercators map is a line of constant
compass bearing. Youd draw a line to your destination, set
your compass to the bearing of the line, follow it and,

making allowances for winds and tides, get where you were
going.
Mercators work was not appreciated right away. For one
thing, the map was too different at a time when sailors put
a great deal of faith in tradition. For another, the map was
too small to be of much practical use. It wasnt until the
ideas behind Mercators map became understood and
accepted, and until the map was redrawn as a series of
regional sea charts, that his work became popular.
In the 18th century when world travel became more
common, the use of Mercators map became more
common too. In that
increasingly scientific
Map Words
age the maps technical practicality gave it
Charts: A chart is a map
great authority. It was
designed for navigation.
in the 18th century
There are coastal charts,
that Mercators map
harbor charts, nautical charts
began to be seen as the
for use at sea and aeronautical
world map, essentially
charts for flying.
because it was the map
of the seaman, the
map of the navigator, the map of the professional world
traveler. As Western nations made themselves into colonial powers, Mercators map of the world came to be
seen as an important icon of Western superiority.
A Maps Quality Is Related To Its Purpose
The Mercator as an icon of Western superiority is
something else we will have a lot to say about further on.
Here our point is that this famous, popular, and
apparently general purpose map of the world turns out

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

to have been created to serve a very special purpose. It is

a purpose almost as special as the purpose served by the

The Mercator projection makes Europe look larger than South America. In fact,
Europe only has 3.8 million square miles and there are 6.9 million square miles
in South America. Of course, the projection was never designed to facilitate the
comparison of areas.

guards map. In fact, both maps have similar purposes.

Both are about helping you get where you are going.
How true is the Mercator? A lot of people think it is
not very true. To see what they are talking about, do
this: hold the modern version of the Mercator up to a
globe.
On the globe it is obvious that Mexico is larger than
Alaska, but on the Mercator it looks like Alaska is three
times the size of Mexico. On the globe you can see that
Africa is significantly larger than North America, but on

the Mercator it is the other way around. On the globe

South America can be seen to be almost twice as large
as Europe, but on the Mercator Europe seems to be
larger than South America.
The proportions of places on the globe are not the
proportions shown on the Mercator. On the Mercator
places closer to the north and south poles are
proportionally larger often much larger than
places closer to the equator.
How to think about this? Our dictionary says that to
distort something is, To twist out of a proper or natural
relation of parts, and in this simple, straightforward
sense Mercators map distorts the sizes of places on the
globe. But my dictionary goes on to say that to distort is,
To cast false light on, alter misleadingly, misrepresent.
In this second sense, the twisting out of a proper
relation is intended to mislead. The problem is that
these two senses of distort are often confused.
Does the Mercator mislead? It so happens that it is
impossible to make compass bearings straight lines on the
same map that gives places their proper proportions. It is
just not possible. To show the one, the other has to be
twisted out of a proper relation of parts. No map can
show both these things together.
To show one truth you have to distort another. This is
one good reason we need so many truths.
In our case this is because a world map is a
two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional globe.
There simply is no way to squash the globe into a plane
without losing something true about the globe. A
simple example is the way you can run your finger around
and around the globe. You cant do this on the Mercator
simply because of its edges. This is a crude illustration but

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

it gets to the heart of the matter: the map is not the

globe.
What this means is that every map is a view of the
globe. From this perspective, different maps are a lot like
the different views the two of us had of lunch, different,
because we were focused on different things, but equally
valid. Different maps are like telling a story, but from
different points of view.
Another way of saying this is that different maps
amount to different selections from what is available to
be shown in a medium where you cannot show
everything at once. What was true about the map the

Lerwick

Halifax

Part of the North Atlantic Ocean on Mercators projection showing the line of constant compass bearing (straight) and the great circle route (curved) between
Lerwick and Halifax. Although it shows up as longer on this projection, the great
circle route is shorter on the globe. A composite line composed of little short lines
of constanrt compass bearing has been fitted to the great circle route. These are
what a pilot would follow.

guard at Duke made is true about all maps: all maps are
selections from everything that is known, bent to the
mapmakers purpose.
Because it was no part of Mercators purpose to give the
proper proportions of places on the globe, it is not fair to
imply that his map casts a false light on, or misleadingly
alters, them. The loss of proportionality was an unavoidable
consequence of Mercators purpose to make compass
bearings straight lines. This loss of proportionality, most
serious in the infrequently traveled polar regions, was of
no practical importance for navigation, just as the lack of
proportionality in distances on the guards map was of no
practical importance for us.
Furthermore, when the Mercator was applied in a series
of regional sea charts as intended, the distortion was greatly reduced. Mercators purpose was to help sailors plot their
courses across the ocean, and for that purpose his map worked.
It still does.
As people require more than one truth, so sailing
requires more than a single view of the world. As useful as
the Mercator is, it could not be used for navigation by itself.
No single map could ever suffice. For one thing, no map of
the world could ever be sufficiently detailed for the careful
sailing required to take
a ship along a coast, or
Map Words
into and out of a harbor. For that purpose
Great circle: this is any line
navigators had lockthat, like the equator, divides a
ers filled with local
sphere into two equal halves.
charts. For another
The shortest distance between
thing, no navigator
two points on a sphere is part of
could
use
the
a great circle.
Mercator to plot his

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

shortest route. For that purpose he needed a map that

shows great circles as straight lines.
Showing great circles as straight lines is another thing
maps can do but not a map that makes compass bearings
straight lines, or that gives areas their proper proportions. This is another example of the fact that all maps
are selections from everything that is known, bent to the
mapmakers purpose. Like telling a story from different
points of view, each purpose requires a different map.
What is a great circle? It is any line that divides a
sphere into two equal halves. The equator is a great
circle. It divides the globe into northern and southern
hemispheres. While the shortest distance between two
points on a plane is a straight line, the shortest distance
between two points on a sphere is part of a great circle.
This is just another of those differences between planes
and spheres that complicates the world of maps.
You may already know about great circle routes. Take
another look at a globe. If you were to fly from New York
to Beijing would you head east over the Atlantic, Europe
and all of Asia? Or west across the U.S. and the Pacific?
Or would you fly north, more or less over the pole?
As you can see (and if you want to make sure you can
use a piece of thread or string to measure it), the shortest
route (by far!) goes over the pole. This is a great circle
route, a segment of a circle which if it were continued
would circle the globe and, like the equator, divide it in
two.
As you can also see, flying along the great circle route
from New York to Beijing you would be constantly
changing your bearing. First you would be flying north,

then west, then

Map Words
south.
The way navigators
Gnomonic: This is a kind of
work is to plot their
map that shows great circles as
route on a map that
straight lines.
shows great circle
routes as straight
Lambert conformal conic: this
lines. They can do
is a kind of map on which great
this on a kind of map
circles are close enough to
called the gnomonic.
straight lines to make it useful
Such maps do not
for aeronautical charts.
have a lot of other
useful characteristics,
so they are not much used. Since great circles are almost
straight on Lambert conformal conic maps, these are
increasingly used for this purpose, especially for
aeronautical charts.
Having laid out their route on such a map, the pilots
transfer it to a Mercator. Here they approximate the
route with a chain of straight line segments. They then
fly along these segments which, since they are straight
lines on a Mercator, are lines of constant compass bearing.
This is pretty much how ships navigate too. Of course
today this is all done by computers.
To Repeat: A Maps Quality Is a Function of Its
Purpose
Would it be fair to say Mercators world map lied
because it lacked detail about the coasts and harbors?
Not really. If you want to show the worlds 197 million
square miles on a chart thats twelve feet square, some

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

details are going to be

left out. It is like
Map Words
telling a story. If
someone wants it told
Generalization: When mapin 60 seconds the
makers smooth out coastlines
details that would
or take the kinks out of rivers
make it last an hour
to give the general idea, as
have to go. You just
when they are showing the
hit the main points.
whole Mississippi or the whole
This isnt lying. It is
East Coast of North America,
not incompleteness
they call it a generalization.
either. When mapmakers just hit the
main points, ignoring, say, all the tiny twists and turns of
a coastline, they call it generalization.
Similarly, Mercators failure to give places their proper proportions doesnt amount to lying, nor is it fair to
think about it as inaccurate. The changes in proportionality are smooth, continuous and predictable. They are necessary consequences of the manipulations Mercator had to
carry out in order to make compass bearings straight lines.
To make all this clearer, here is another world map.
And what a different world!
This is called the Peters map, after Arno Peters who
introduced it in 1974. Unlike Mercator whose purpose
was to help sailors, Peterss purpose was to help the rest
of us. Peters believed that widespread use of Mercator
maps for all kinds of purposes that had nothing to do
with navigation had built up in our minds a greatly
distorted image of the world.
It is fair to say Peters was especially concerned about
our image of Africa and those other countries around

the equator that were given short-shrift as a

consequence of the Mercator projection. On a Mercator
the former Soviet Union is much larger than Africa.
Wouldnt people looking at such a map imagine that the
Soviet Union was much more important than Africa?
Africa is actually about the size of the former Soviet
Union and the United States combined. Africa is
substantially larger than the United States and the current
Russia. If size were what mattered Africa would rank
second in importance only to Asia. Europe would compete
with Australia for last place. There is no question that the
Peters makes this much more evident than the Mercator.

What a different world this seems to be. This is a projection of the world that gives
areas their true relative size. You can easily see how much larger South America
is than Europe. On the other hand, compass bearings are not straight on this map.
Maps really are like points of view.

10

One: The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World

A head drawn one one projection (Robinsons) has been transferred to the Mercator (center left) and a sinusoidal (center right) and finally to a Mollweide (far right).
The natural profile could have been drawn on any of these and then plotted on the others. This is just a way of getting of sense of what different projections do.

Which map is right?

Theyre both right. Theyre just right about different
things. But again, theyre both wrong too.
Focus on the shapes of the continents. First hold the Peters
up next to a globe. Is Africa really so tall and skinny? Is Alaska
so stringy? The shapes on the Peters are precisely as distorted
as sizes on the Mercator. The loss of good shape, what mapmakers call conformality, is
one of the things Peters had
to sacrifice to keep the areas
Map Words
of places in their proper proportions.
Conformality: this is the
On the other hand, the
ability of a map to perserve
Mercator does show true
angular relationships as they
shapes. This is something
exist on the globe. What
we will have more to say
this means is that the map
about later on, but if you
can show shapes the way
compare shapes on the
they are. A conformal map
Mercator with those on the
cannot show areas in their
globe you will see that if
true size.
shapes are true, they are

true in a very peculiar way.

In fact, shapes are only locally true on the Mercator.
That is, shapes are true in this little spot here, and
shapes are true in that little spot there. But because sizes
change so drastically, when you look at something as big
as a continent you have one small true shape toward the
equator (say Mexico), and another small true shape near
the pole (say Alaska), but the latter is so many times larger
than the former, that when you put them together, the
shape of North America as a whole is not right.
Its as if you were to draw a picture of someones face,
and you got the shape of the chin right, and you got the
shape of the forehead right, but you made the forehead
ten times larger than the chin. Then even though every
part was right, the shape of the whole face would seem
to be wrong.
Shapes get truer and truer the more you zoom in on
the Mercator. This is why the Mercator is so widely used
today for mapping small areas in great detail.

Chapter Title Placeholder

11

Each Map Has Its Own Point of View

So which map should you use?
You should use the map that serves your purpose. Only
when you are given a maps purpose, can the maps rightness its truth be assessed.
If youre flying across the ocean the Mercator is going
to be useful, but if youre trying to compare the sizes of
places you will want to use the Peters. If youre trying to
find your way from Duke to Angier Avenue, neither will
be the slightest help.
We need a local point of view to get across town. We
need a comparative perspective to get sizes right. We
need the point of view of a compass to fly across the
ocean.
Every map takes a point of view. No map can show
everything at once any more than the two of us could see
the same things at the same time at lunch. At the very
least, if we were to see each other, we couldnt see
ourselves! Besides, sometimes one of us was in the
kitchen getting the coffee, or visiting the bathroom.
Then our experiences of the meal were sharply divided.
One of us might ask, Remember that bird a minute ago
that and the other will say, No, I was in the kitchen
getting the coffee, but you told me about it. Yet we did
have lunch together.
The map that is, as it were, getting the coffee (making
compass bearings straight) cant be sitting on the porch
taking in the scene (showing places in their proper
proportions). Yet there is only one planet.
It takes many different eyes to see it all, and many different maps to show it. That this is a strength, not a
weakness, is what the rest of this book is about.

Seeing Through Maps:

The Power of Images to
Shape Our World View
by Ward L. Kaiser & Denis Wood
ODT Inc., Amherst, MA ($19.95)
1-800-736-1293
to be published summer 2001

2001. ODT, Inc. All rights reserved